WHEN PORNO MEETS HETERO SEXPO, Heteronormativity and the Pornification of the Mainstream

Heterosexuality as an idea and a practice exists only as a result of a constant interplay between what counts as normal and what is relegated to the illicit. This paper will explore a contemporary social phenomenon-pornification-that is potentially refiguring normative boundaries, and consider how this might be reorganising heteronormativity. Here I use a case study-SEXPO Health, Sexuality and Lifestyle Expos-through which to examine an instance of the 'pornification of the mainstream'. It will be argued here that in the case of SEXPO, while many of the acts and expressions of heterosexual practice are changing shape, a heteronormative culture remains front and centre.